Despite an affirmative vote from the Marthasville Board of Aldermen, the city of Marthasville will not be seeking voter approval of an additional 3-percent sales tax on recreational marijuana in April.

The measure will not appear on the ballot because city officials did not submit the required paperwork for the tax proposition by the deadline of Jan. 24, according to Warren County Clerk Denise Stotler, the county’s chief elections officiant.

Under Missouri law, that’s the date all propositions needed to be submitted and certified in order to appear on the ballot, Stotler said. It’s a legal requirement that she can’t offer any flexibility on.

Stotler said she spoke to Marthasville city staff and Mayor David Lange last week to inform them that the deadline had been missed. She said the only option now is to submit the proposition for a future election.

Mayor David Lange has not yet responded to a call from The Record requesting comment.

Marthasville aldermen had voted at their January 18 meeting to place the measure on the April 4 ballot.

The proposition might now be on hold until next year’s regular April election for local government offices. There are also a couple opportunities to present the ballot issue sooner, but Marthasville would have to pay the entire cost of printing election ballots and staffing a voting precinct, Stotler said. That sort of election cost is normally split amongst several entities that are all running elections at the same time.

Stotler said she doesn’t currently have an estimate for what an election for just the city of Marthasville would cost, but that it would certainly be thousands of dollars.

Although the city of Marthasville won't have a marijuana tax on the ballot, the Warren County government will. A countywide 3% recreational marijuana sales tax will be decided in April, along with localized tax propositions in Warrenton and Wright City.